Essential Remote Project Manager Skills

The project manager is responsible for the successful and timely execution of a project by maintaining a lead over the team, project tools, and cost. The project manager is the road map to the effective strategies, concrete objectives and plan building for customer projects. One of the responsibility to eliminate the impediments in the way of planning, designing and executing for the project team. Remote project manager manages the mutual coordination between Project owner and team for setting up objectives and designs to achieve prioritized goals set by the product owner.

Remote Project Management

Remote project managers need to keep the big picture in mind when guiding individual projects towards the company goal. They need to maintain leadership and team building. The ability to communicate while negotiating the contracts, presenting strategies for the project plan building, and when influencing outcomes. Senior project managers hold the core responsibilities of keeping a strong resolution, stakeholder management; possess an analytic ability to plan the effective use of resources, tools, under the given cost and circumstances.

a) Project Scope

It determines the success in the technical project. The project scope is the detailed process with the description of the project and the product. The key purpose of the project scope is to describe the product, services, and requirements for the desired outcomes. The project managers define every possibility to achieve the maximum revenue, and ROI through project scope. They define the effective strategic moves to the remote team to achieve the goals successfully. An elaborate scope and the time frame to complete the project are the core elements to all successful projects.

b) Project Schedule

It is one of the project management platforms to manage overall activities and resources available to the project. It monitors the daily performance of the project. The schedule contains a complete chart of resources and work list to complete it within the given timeline. The schedule describes the milestones, the task, the resources, and the time frame required to achieve the successful execution of the project. It is the complete guideline to measure the progress by identifying the real and actual cost, the planned and actual schedule performance, and give the explanation causing the variances. The project manager and program manager can utilize it as an informational project guide to draw a concrete conclusion for a successful execution of the project.

c) Work Breakdown Structure Development

This the effective strategy of distributing the workload among the team members. WBS varies under different developments. Such as the agile development, devises a smart strategy of dividing the workload into tiniest parts and throwing over the members to deal with. It runs tests and retests over each divided part. Remote project managers organize regular meetings to examine and evaluate the work progress, to remove bugs and errors, to maintain the time frame, to recheck the workloads on team members, and to test design.

d) Resource Allocation & Management

It is the viable strategy for planning, scheduling and the successful execution of the project under the given budget and resources.

The Evolving Landscape of Project Management

The business landscape is changing due to increased global competition, economic fluctuations, stock market volatility, and innovation in technology. The new economic variations have accelerated the pace of change within business and brought more complex solutions and strategic business transformations to increase the productivity. The new changes posed more challenge able conditions for project managers for the delivery of the projects under the new prescribed tactics.

Reduced Cost: To curtail the sky touching prices of IT, the services of outsourced human services are 70% cheaper than the United States. The remote project manager is responsible to control his remote team, cost and the best quality delivery within the budget and timeline. Remote PM is expected to have the additional managing skills to keep the team motivated, working smoothly, producing the desired quality work, following the timelines and all prescribed guidelines to deliver the customized product.

The High Quality: In the world of globalized competition, where millions of competitors are thriving hard to polish product quality and delivering at cheaper prices. Hence, one of the essential yardsticks for remote project managers is to deliver high quality and customized products.

Remote Product Manager Skills

Tech-Hero

Engrossed with skills to lead his team in a manner of a proficient entrepreneur who has flexible methods, concrete objectives, and innovative plans.

Motivational Power Bank

it is not a fancy assumption to call him the motivational guru because he is the leader who knows to keep his remote team boasted, evolving and sustaining.

Eliminate Impediments

Product Owner and the remote team look up to product manager for the solution of each obstacle since PM has sharp sight to look deep into the matter.

Manager of the Team’s Dynamics

PM is expected to be an all-rounder; a good coach, planner, psychiatrist, meditator, problem solver and collaborator because has to gather versatile members under one roof of an agile project, has to maintain the smooth working environment and has to ensure progress.

Responsible for the Quality Deliverable

Each aspect, thriving under agile development is in the process of continuous evolution. It is the continuous effort as well to reduce delivery of half-baked products and endeavor to provide speedy product release to improve customer perception.

Accurate Estimation Abilities

It is more foolish than a fancy assumption to achieve 100% results. The realistic approach and refined precision can be attained through dedicated competency, collaboration, coordination, and management.

Self-Organization

Self-Organization has turned the remote team into the progressing and liberal state. It is the successful management of guiding the evolution of behaviors that emerge from the interaction and collaboration.

Cross-Functional

Remote practitioners share a mindset to work under small autonomous cross-functional teams working in short cycles on relatively small tasks and getting continuous feedback from the customer.

Steps to follow for the management of remote project team

Remote project managers play a vital role in controlling the remote team and remote projects in the absence of program managers, and owner. The effective methodology is requisite to look over the teamwork and progress from the different geographical location.

1.Management of Remote Team

Dividing of workloads, responsibilities, scheduling of timelines is the imperative task in outsourcing and offshoring businesses. Project managers take advantages of conference calls, video conferencing and employ other modes of interactive communication. Mutually shared Google docs and google sheets give them quick access to work progress with charts, graphs, and proper ETAs. These tools help them in assigning of the task, managing of work progress and preparing of strategies.

2.Strategies for Remote Teamwork

Teamwork, plan, and schedules make the task easier for remote managers to assign tasks and to check the completion dates. This methodology divides remote manager’s duties, make it easier to look over work progress and to make end projects reports. Teamwork strategy works as a motivational strategy to make all versatile members work with collaboration and unity. It removes the communication gap which can slow down the work speed. The mutual collaboration quickens the speed of the work.

3.Communication Strategies

Communication is the central source of interaction. It plays the crucial role in managing the teams from a remote location. Project managers have to devise the strategy to have a smooth flow of communication. The miscommunication or improper communication can bring flaws in the quality, slow down the speed, and can demotivate the team members.

4. Maintenance of track record of work status

The weekly meetings, daily progress reports, and ETAs help project managers to have work progress status. It also helps them assigning of new work and responsibilities to the members who have less workloads.

5.Weekly Meetings

Weekly meetings not only help team members with their work progress but also give them motivation, guidance and helping strategies to speed up the work pace given by remote project managers. Hosting of weekly meetings from remote geographical places are managed through Skype group calls, zoom meetings, sharing screens and webinars.

Closing Words

Remote management is a big responsibility. The efficient and skillful management makes offshore and outsourcing business a success in the recent times of highest competition and day to day innovations of technology. It requires patience and stamina to manage remote projects and remote teams from different geographical places. To meet the hot and cold circumstances they should always prepare a backup plan. The success of the projects lies in the mutual teamwork, collaboration, proper helping guides, balanced divide of workloads, and regular checks of quality and progress.